Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Holocaust Almanac - The Nuremberg Law: Protecting the Blood
Summary: Brief article dealing with the nature of the law, and its   
         avoidance of "racial" restrictions...
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Frick,Nuremberg

File: holocaust/germany/nuremberg nuremberg.001
Last-modified: 1993/08/27 

   "The tenth of September marked the opening of the 1935 party rally in
   Nu"rnberg.  ...The rally's theme was Freedom.  In ironic contrast,
   Hitler simultaneously proclaimed the new racial laws, technically
   known as the Reichscitizenship Law and the Law for the Defense of
   German Blood and German Honor (Reichsbu"gergesetz und das Gesetz sum
   Schutze des deutschen Blutes and der deutschen Ehre).  The laws were
   later known throughout the world as the Nu"rnberg Laws, although they
   were signed in Berlin by Minister of the Interior Dr.  Frick on
   September 15, 1935.

   The original version was comparatively mild.  It replaced the notion
   of race with that of _blood_ in the following words (the convoluted
   Nazi style sounds equally clumsy in translation):

      German blood does not of itself form a race. Instead, the German
      people is composed of the members of differing races. However,
      what all of these races have in common is that their blood is
      mutually compatible, and that a mixture of these bloods, in
      contrast to bloods that are not of a related sort, will not cause
      any inhibitions or tensions. (Translation by the author.)

   This avoided the untenable notion of a 'pure' German race and,
   instead, spoke of compatible 'German bloodedness'
   (Deutschblutigkeit). The laws could specifically be pointed at Jews,
   Gypsies, Slavs, Semites (Arabs), Africans, Orientals, Mongolians, and
   anyone whose blood was 'not akin (artverwandt) to German bloods.'
   

   The original laws claimed they were so structured that they excluded
   Jews without 'causing hardship.' But, of course, the lawyer,
   architect, government official, or businessman who could not be
   accredited or licensed by the state was facing extreme hardship.

   Here is the original explanation of the laws given in 1935 by
   Reichsminister Frick:

      The Reichscitizenship Law for the Protection of the Blood as well
      as the attached regulations shall not have the purpose of lowering
      the standing of members of the Jewish people because of their
      (exclusion from) membership in the national community. Instead,
      the exclusion of Jews from official German life and the prevention
      of racial mixing are imperatively necessary to secure the
      continuation of the German people's existence. Jews in Germany
      shall not be prevented from pursuing a livelihood. However, the
      fate of Germany shall in the future be solely in the hands of the
      German people." (Weitz, 95-96)

                            Work Cited:

Weitz, John. Hitler's Diplomat: The Life and Times of Joachim von
Ribbentrop. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992

Ironic, don't you think?  Gannon and Company can claim that the Nazis
were not racist in their application of the relevant law, and cite Frick
until the cows come home....Just protecting the "blood," you know.

Followup to alt.revisionism.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor